LOS ANGELES — Welcome to the final week of the 2021-22 NBA regular season, where the LA Clippers are 39-40 and firmly locked into eighth seed entering the Play-In Tournament that will take place April 12-15.
Sure, the Clippers can complete a homestand with wins over the Phoenix Suns (locked in with home-court advantage throughout the postseason), Sacramento Kings (eliminated from playoff contention for a record-breaking 16th consecutive season) and Oklahoma City Thunder (committed to controlling the Clippers draft through 2026), and doing so would extend the league’s longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons to 11.
But the Clippers aren’t concerned with being regular-season animals.
“Not really,” Terance Mann said before Tuesday’s practice when asked if the team discusses finishes with a record better than .500. “We’re just trying to get ready for these playoffs here.”
After a 96-day absence with a torn ligament in his right elbow, Paul George returned last week. It was the first big step towards getting ready for the push towards the postseason. That push was bolstered once again this week, as Norman Powell returned to practice 54 days after suffering a fractured medial sesamoid bone in his left foot. It’s also possible rookie point guard Jason Preston could soon make his NBA debut, six months after undergoing right foot surgery.
And the biggest piece of them all came to work early on Tuesday, as Kawhi Leonard got shots up exactly 38 weeks after he underwent right knee surgery to repair a partially torn ACL suffered in Game 4 of the 2021 Western Conference semifinals. This wasn’t a casual appearance from Leonard, who discouraged any footage to be taken of him and had Preston relocate from the far end of the court so that he could get shots up with assistant coaches Jeremy Castleberry and Conor Dunleavy.
Oh and Kawhi Leonard is here pic.twitter.com/NBq4Tj7ILG
— Law Murray ☔️ (@LawMurrayTheNU) April 5, 2022
“I didn’t see him,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of Leonard, despite Lue’s face mask not covering his eyes while Leonard worked on jab step 3s with both pivot feet.
On Tuesday, Leonard did not wear a knee brace as he worked on shooting and walked through his pull-ups and spin moves in the midrange area. Leonard typically comes to work out in practices, but this was the earliest he has arrived all season.
Last year, the Clippers went through a similar period in the last two weeks of the regular season in terms of getting players back from long-term injury. Leonard was a part of that group as well:
As of now, there remains no official timetable on Leonard’s return. But remember his words in the media-day press conference: “Working with the staff day-to-day. When that available date comes, we’ll be ready for it, and it’ll be out in the public.”
Leonard won’t reach the nine-month mark of his surgery until the middle of Play-In week, so it does not seem likely that he would return unless the Clippers earn themselves a seven-game series. But if they do make it out of the Play-In, Leonard could be available. Leonard has been on six road trips this season, perhaps the most notable being when he got on the court in Golden State last month to get a round of shots up.
By next week, the team also should have Powell back into the fold. Powell is fitting the same pattern and routine that George did prior to his return: on-court pregame workout, a return to practice, then a possible return to game action.
“I’ve known Norm’s game, and him not being out there with us, it gives him that extra itch,” said Robert Covington, who arrived with Powell in the February trade from Portland. “He wants to be a part of it so bad, but he knew that it was going to take time for him to get back. Now that he’s starting to come back into a groove and get back healthy, it’s exciting to see what he’s going to be able to do once he comes back. And once we get our full team back, it’s going to be scary.”
Where Powell figures into the lineup is an open question. He came off the bench in his Clippers debut, fitting a second unit that included Covington, Mann, Isaiah Hartenstein and Luke Kennard quite well. Powell was a starter in the following game before getting injured in the third and final game. Lue has started Reggie Jackson, George, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris Sr. and Ivica Zubac, and perhaps Powell slides back into a role with the second unit.
“I think they’ve done a good job,” Lue said when I asked about the current starters remaining together beyond next week.
In any case, the Clippers have put themselves in position to work guys back into the lineup this week. Even Preston, who is on the same itinerary that Scrubb was last year, should get a chance to play if cleared. With Powell back for the Play-In and the door still open for Leonard, the possibilities exceed what most would expect from a low seed.
“It’s going to be very scary, because you got so much firepower throughout the entire team at any given moment,” Covington said. “You never know whose night it’ll be. You never know how the team’s going to play, or you don’t know who’s going to bring what.”
(Photo of Kawhi Leonard: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)